New user - small file server questions and quick GUI question

[Kaya Saman]

Kurt Buff wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 15:29, Kaya Saman <SamanKaya at netscape.net> wrote:
>   
>
> I see I didn't completely read your original message. Indulge me a
> moment while I ramble here, and probably expose my ignorance...
>
>  Xorg/X11 <> Gnome
>   

Gnome runs on Xorg: Xorg/Xfree runs X11

Xfree is now obsolete as Xorg is much better.

> Nautilis is a file manager, unless I misremember. The native file
> manager for xfce4 is Thunar.
>
> Gnome, like xfce4 (and ratpoison, kde, etc.) is a Window Manager,
> which depends on Xorg/X11 to function. WMs are usually installed
> installed after Xorg.
>   

Correct on both counts :-)

> Did you install gnome from source, or did you use 'pkg_add -r'? I
> don't know why, but I seem to have better luck, though it takes much
> longer, if I use 'make install' from the ports tree.
>   

I used pkg_add! Am such a package manager guy as although have compiled 
quite a bit of stuff I find on some systems such as Sun Solaris 
compiling can be a nightmare. Especially if it means hacking out source 
code and using special make parameters as I'm not a programmer but also 
not that far advanced when it comes down to building software from scratch!

>   
>
> I'm not far along that learning curve myself. Heh.
>
> I started on an old Toshiba laptop with 256mbytes RAM, and Freesbie
> worked well on that. I then learned how to install from scratch. That
> was, um, interesting. I hated Linux, as it seems so arcane. Well,
> perhaps 'hate' is too strong a word, but it left a bad taste in my
> mouth. Once I worked with FreeBSD, it became much more clear. Things
> seem to be done more sanely in FreeBSD. Now I have a nice 4gbyte
> Lenovo T61, and I still like xfce4 - it does what I want, and I didn't
> want to expend the effort to learn anything new.
>   

Well, Linux has its advantages and for the last 2 years have completely 
used it as an M$ Windowz replacement as one can do almost everything on 
it. When I meant; not used to doing things from scratch I meant building 
the OS. I actually prefer doing a minimal install of CentOS with no 
software or GUI at all and then building the system up to what I need 
when it comes down to servers!!!

Means I can fine tune the system that way and only use the system 
resources for what I need.

Being a user of both Solaris and Linux though, they are both pretty cool 
with Solaris only hindered by lack of software and multimedia apps. 
Otherwise I think Solaris in Open guise would win anyday provided that 
the H/W support was as vast as Linux.
 
>   
>
> If you're very familiar with gnome, you might wish to stay with it. If
> you're just learning, for both gnome and xfce4, my preference would be
> for xfce4. But that's just me, and you'll get at least 10 different
> answers from the first 8 people you meet.
>
>   

Have played round with everything including KDE3/4, XFCE, Blackbox, 
Fluxbox, Window Maker, CDE (on Solaris)......

Wish there was something more, new and interesting but they're all a bit 
bland after a while. Gnome I find is more functional!

If anyone has any idea of getting something like they use on TV shows 
like NCIS and CSI that would be really cool (not Hollywood OS) or 
something they use in the military that one sees on the discovery 
channel say on the US Navy ships.

I mean I do develop GUI's for the OpenSolaris spin-off distro Belenix 
which can be seen here:

http://www.optiplex-networks.com/belenix/index_belenix.html

under themes.

But really need a new concept of completely tricked out geeky 'suped' up 
WM. Lot's of bar graphs, text outputs and other really cool stuff 
embedded into it :-) - no need for Gkrellm or Conky or Torsmo anymore!